L-R: Anne Van Ingen and David Pratt at Legends 2010 • Edmund “Ned” S. Twining III and his wife, Diana, in the Myrtle Hall atrium gallery following the Charles Pratt Memorial Scholarship awards presentation in March 2011 • Mike Pratt addressing guests at Legends 2010.
grandfather would recognize since the industrial Greenpoint he knew is now a trendy haven for artists, but it’s fabulous,” says Mike Pratt, a fourth-generation descendant of Charles Pratt and current chair of the Pratt Institute Board of Trustees. Among those on the board in the 1960s at the time of the decision to remain in Brooklyn was Richardson “Jerry” Pratt, who was appointed acting president in June 1972 after the resignation of then-president Henry Saltzman. Richardson Pratt went on to serve as president of Pratt until 1990. His son, David Pratt, who now serves on Pratt’s board, remembers his father volunteering to step in as president for just six months. “After six months, it turned out that he absolutely loved the job, and the faculty and students loved him. It was the beginning of an 18-year relationship.” David Pratt remembers his father dealing with Pratt Chaplin Michael Perry on many community issues to help strengthen Pratt: “My father took great pride in Pratt’s programs and faculty. He travelled to Iran with Nasser Sharify of the Library Science department to discuss the establishment of library systems with the Shah. He then spent time in Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese Government, to discuss the roads and city planning, with the increasing presence of the automobile there.” The familial engagement with the Institute rubbed off on David Pratt. “As a family we have to be very proud of how my great-greatgrandfather’s experiment has worked out. While he sought a blend of fine art with the practical, Pratt has evolved into a creative center of socially conscious design.” Today, he and his immediate family are taking an active interest in the renovation of townhouses that are
being revitalized to create new student housing. “The culturally innovative Pratt townhouses will be restored to serve students as an attractive, historic oasis on the campus.” David Pratt is not the only Pratt family member helping to preserve culturally and historically significant structures. Anne Van Ingen, the great-granddaughter of Herbert Pratt, Charles Pratt’s fourth son, spent nearly 30 years supporting arts organizations and preservation groups through advocacy and grant making as director of the Architecture, Planning and Design and Capital Aid programs at the New York State Council on the Arts. “I think there is a strong strain of public service in a broader sense in this family,” says Van Ingen. “There is a sense that those who have inherited so much have an obligation to give back. It’s compelling that Pratt Institute has exactly the same sense of obligation. Through Pratt’s focus on social responsibility, the school is training the people who are going to make a better world for all of us. I think that’s a family trait.”
Photos: Diana Pau (Van Ingen), Douglas Marks (Ned Twining), Kevin Wick (Mike Pratt)
As a family we have to be very “proud of how my great-great-
grandfather’s experiment has worked out. While he sought a blend of fine art with the practical, Pratt has evolved into a creative center of socially conscious design.
”
Moving Forward—with Creativity Anne Van Ingen’s sentiments are shared by Amanda McLane, the greatgreat-granddaughter of Herbert Pratt and a first-year graduate student at the Institute’s School of Library and Information Science (SILS). “Charles Pratt and his children made a tremendous impact on New York and had a reputation for giving back. Attending the institution they established pushes me to work hard and be worthy of the opportunity.” McLane, who earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from 15